Baltic Telecommunications Cables Damaged, Sabotage Not Ruled Out
Finnish National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has not ruled out sabotage, but says it's too early to come to any solid conclusions on the incident.
FINLAND - Two telecommunications cables located in the Baltic Sea were damaged Sunday and Monday, according to the Finnish Prime Minister and the country's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), which has not ruled out sabotage, but says it's too early to come to any solid conclusions on the incident.
After damage was reported on a telecoms cable running between Sweden and Lithuania on Sunday, the C-Lion1 submarine (underwater) telecommunications cable was found to be damaged on Monday.
Authorities from Finland and Sweden are currently investigating the two incidents via a joint investigative team, according to Timo Kilpeläinen, who heads the NBI investigation department.
On Tuesday, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius spoke to Reuters and said that he suspects the damage was a result of sabotage. YLE cited the company that owns the telecommunications cables as saying that it would be virtually impossible to damage them without using "external force".
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP) also said on Tuesday, however, that it's too early to draw any conclusions about how the cables were damaged.
Speaking to reporters at the Aalto University in Espoo, Finland he said "It is not yet possible to say whether it was sabotage. That's why I'm not jumping to conclusions yet".
“The authorities remain vigilant even during Christmas and are investigating the situation."
He also said that the power outage caused by the damage "does not affect electricity supplies for Finns [to Finland]" and added, "The authorities remain vigilant even during Christmas and are investigating the situation."
